A Poem by Aditi Machado


How to enter a library

Enter weakened at the door, aware
that centuries of sentence press
down on you.

Expect pain: the tattoo on your index
finger as you scan through a text
of raised typeface.

Browse for natural light. Ditch
it for the bulb flickering like static.
Lose your eyes to the art:

the old Turkish masters painted
better without the distraction
of sight; remember

to wear silk, to let your feet
shuffles as sheaves
rat-rustled.


(More Poems by Aditi Machado)
 

A Poem by  T.Amanyu

The pellucid clouds drifted away,
And behind drew the harbingers of rains,
The livid clouds, shrouding the blissful may,
Strewn across welkin, as boom's true stains,
Hefty, sloppy, that down would giggle,
When the heavens have enjoyed their ephemeral dangle.

A syringa bloom squinted tardily for long,
At these clouds in such unwonted upheaval,
And a Jenny that hence had trailed a furlong,
Slowly did gape at nature's such marvel.
With the coming of the rains, has set in my life's eventide,
For, evoke I now, how time has run into time so wide.

An eagle soared to her eyrie high,
Regally starring at this wondrous sight,
And in her nest fluttered her wings dry,
Then hush'd her nestlings, cuddling them tight.
I watched her as for the rain she waited,
And as slowly the sky obscured as lead.

A blossoming tulip did flinch a leaf,
As a sloppy drop into it did splash,
And then reverted into the blossoming's grief,
The earliest experience in her memory's cache.
I didst espy her stretch her li'lle hands,
Her eyes sagged with gratitude, on her natal sands.

A nodding hibiscus droopingly pull'd,
As the last of sunrays evanesced away,
And waited fain quiet to be lull'd,
Through the tittering rain of that day,
And soon, I knew, she'd be sleeping deep,
And waiting for the season’s leap.

The dotaged oak did bend and peep,
Through his fringing, far-reaching branches,
At the lolling clouds as they did creep,
An' wondered whence had reached these patches,
For his legs were leagues beneath the ground,
And with them had gone his acumen sound.

Somewhere far on shingly oe sat,
A tiny tabby with his twinkling een twain,
Drifting away with the ripples turned matt,
In circles great by the dribbling rain.
Grieving upon his cloven reflection,
I saw him sitting there with affliction.

Aside the mountains had faded far,
With their burly beauty receding in haste,
Their hazy contour in the sky vague a scar,
Worrying over this comeliness' waste,
Nevertheless, at last I saw them beam,
For knew they anon the rain would teem.

Afar a pendent bluebell blossom,
As a balmy breeze happened to blow,
Sway'd dismally across her stalk so lissom,
Like the sky losing her blissful glow.
Methinks I saw her eyes downcast,
Perchance musing how longer she’d last.

The water in the mere took ripples great,
The ebullient fish bounced around,
And enjoyed each fain with its mate,
For they had now the dark clouds found.
Swam they through their squiggly wakes,
In the beauteous water of their lake's.

The lake himself now glowed in felicity,
For waiting had almost killed his soul,
And tried to remember how the witty,
Rain to him had promised to dole,
All the water, stretching not a single plea,
To all his brethren-lakes equally.

On dun a boulder alongside his farm,
Sat a farmer, laughing and crying together,
Happy he was as had come the rains full warm,
But pelting rain could kill his farm's glamour.
Few days ago agog waiting for this rain,
Now prayeth he, his efforts should not be in vain.

The li'lle swineherd grimaced and frown'd ,
Prodding his swine with his princely goad,
To the sty, as the clouds had the lour sky bound,
I saw him follow his pigs some lorn road.
I'm sure he knew it would rain that night,
And was not a bit eager for that sight.

The pond was parched and waiting to brim,
Why! That whole village was waiting for that rain,
Frogs danced and in that pond would they swim,
Croaking aloud for that day was their gain.
The beauteous marrams swayed in the balmy breeze,
And heard I the charming West wind wheeze.

'T was a tryst for the birds to meet the clouds,
And on their wings, they chirped in trebles high,
Gleeful cows mooed in happy crowds,
For they'd got their wish and threw a sigh.
That special night was about to bloom,
And time was just to tickle the clouds from gloom.

The warlock stirred his magic wand,
At the lief waiting clouds above.
The birds and beasts to their homes returned.
Then made way for the clouds the li’lle rainbow.
Silence doused all, for they were waiting,
For the most awaited rain's pelting.

Down swift came the pearly droplets,
As some jungle elixir, limpid, cloying.
The lakes jingled as metal under mallets,
Twittered the leaves, grief away flowing.
The music of the rain missed not,
A single bar, a single note.

That whole night that rain heavily did teem,
And like heaven forsooth the whole village looked,
And through that music and dance it did seem,
That these were the most halcyon days ever booked.
Angst, the village had forgotten forever,
And to it will doom never return ever.

Next morn the sun rose juvenile again,
An' the grasses in their dew drop diadems stoop'd.
The spider moaned- his web was snapped by the rain.
Fecundity fay down to that village swooped.
Men and beasts were in their tasks engrossed,
And the wheel of time forward they tossed.

Love filled the bosom of their hearts,
Time haled them toward their sweet duty,
Fate, at them, showered too lucky darts,
In their face and soul beamed beauty.
Soon they all had forgotten the wondrous rains,
And lost were soon in their quotidian pains.

10th 'B', Kendriya Vidyalaya No. 2
Kalpakkam - 603102
amanyut@yahoo.co.in